Importance and Significance of Beards
Hisham bin Muhammad bin As Saib Al Kalbi (d. 204 AH), a scholarly historian, narrated that he
had done two extraordinary things which none would have done. He
completed memorizing the Quran in such less time that none would
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surpass him (only three days); and he made a mistake like which none
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would have committed. The story of his mistake is that one day he
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took a mirror and found out that his beard had grown very long and
irregular. He caught hold of nearly a handful of his beard to cut the
extra part of his beard. But by mistake, instead of cutting the beard below his hand, he moved the
scissor over his hand, thus cutting almost his entire beard 1.

Hisham narrates his story as the biggest blunder and slip of his life and also adds that none
would have ever committed such a foolish mistake. Comparing this with our times, we find a sea of
difference in the attitude of a considerable section of our population for whom keeping beards is against
western fashion, so it has no chance to exist in their life. At the same time when we find beards on the
faces of great human beings of the past like Archimedes, Galileo, Jesus, and even Rabindra Nath Tagore
of our India and of our twentieth century, we feel forced to think what we should really prefer. For a
wise, rational person with a thinking mind, an irrational fashion promoted by unthinking mercenary
models and minor and major stars cannot be the sole standard to be followed in his life. In fact, we find
that long beautiful flowing beards have been adorning the faces of all pious and spiritual people and
priests irrespective of regions and religions. He may be a Hindu sadhu, a Christian priest or a Jewish
rabbi; he may have been living on this earth three thousand years ago or a few centuries ago or be alive
in our own age; again he may belong to the cold countries of Europe, or the warm continent of Africa, or
a moderate Asian nation; but one thing is common among them all: they take pride in their beards.

The truest book on earth, the Quran mentions the beard of a prophet of earlier times: Prophet
Haroon , the elder brother of Hazrat Moosa (peace be upon them). In fact, the practice of growing
beards, far from being a local custom of the Holy Prophet's days, turns out to be a universal natural way
of life for all descendants of Adam. When we turn the pages of hadith books, we find that letting the
beard grow is one of the ten important acts according to fitra: acts which are in complete harmony with
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the human nature and which make up the personality and distinctive features of a community and
society:
A'isha reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Ten are the acts of fitra
(naturalness): clipping the moustache, letting the beard grow, using the tooth-stick, snuffing water in
the nose, cutting the nails, washing the finger joints, plucking the armpit-hair, shaving the pubes and
cleaning one's private parts with water. The narrator said: I have forgotten the tenth, but it may have
been rinsing the mouth. 3 (Reported by Muslim 2:11:502, Ahmad, Nasai, Abu Dawood and Baihaqi)

That the holy Prophet's ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ اﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ وﺳﻠﻢ‬commands regarding beard-growing number in dozens
bears ample testimony to the fact that this is as important a facet of Islam as any other thing. As an
illustration, just three hadiths are quoted here, each of which have been reported in the most of the six
popular books of hadiths:
•

Ibn Umar said, The Prophet said, 'Do the opposite of what the pagans do. Keep
the beards and cut the moustaches short.4 (Bukhari 7:72:780)
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A full-grown beard not only adds to the attractive and impressive personality of a man, it also marks
out a man from a woman. Above all, it is the distinctive feature of Muslim community as a whole. That's
why in several hadiths regarding beards, the holy Prophet stresses the point that a Muslim should
maintain some difference from others. In that age also, there were fools groping in the dark in absence
of divine light and guidance who used to grow moustache and cut short their beards. They were
Zoroastrians. When the Chosroe sent two officers Baanvaih and Kharkhusro from his Yaman province to
arrest the Mercy to Humanity ‫ﺻﻠﻰ اﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ وﺳﻠﻢ‬, they began to tremble because of the Prophet's awe. The
Prophet's heart felt hurt on looking at their stupid faces with shaved beards and long moustache. The
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first question that the Prophet ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ اﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ وﺳﻠﻢ‬asked them was, "Who has forced you to spoil your faces?"
"Our lord (Chosroe, the Persian emperor)," they replied. The holy Prophet ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬stated that as
for me, my Lord (Allah) has commanded me to grow beard and shorten the moustache. 7
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The hadith is quite clear in its message that even the beardless face of an unknown stranger, a
hostile non-Muslim is hurtful to the Prophet. Can you just imagine how much the spoilt clean-shaven
face of a Muslim youth or adult would hurt him?

When an admirer of famous Persian poet Mirza Bedil of India visited him from Iran, he was surprised
to see him getting his beard trimmed. Having read the poet's eulogies for Prophet ‫ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬, he
had formed an opinion that the poet would be a pious good Muslim. The Iranian fan could not control
his feelings. "Sir, you are getting your hair trimmed!!". The tone of rebuke and revulsion from a nobody
(common man) did elicit a response from the poet.
"Yes, I do shave my beard, but I do not shave (hurt) anybody's heart," was the arrogant reply from
the poet.
"Oh, but you are in fact running your blade on the holy Prophet's ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬heart!!"

Wisdom dawned on the poet! He kept quiet thinking over the profound words of the common man.
He made no counter-reply.

When Satan was thrown out of his heavenly abode because of his arrogance and disobedience, he
had vowed that he would not enter the Hell alone on the Day of Judgement. Rather he would wean
away a considerable portion of mankind to disobey Him and consequently follow him to Hell. He
resolved to mislead the humans by inviting them to all sorts of sins, one of the significant among them is
"changing the nature of Allah's creation". Islamic scholars are unanimous that this is strictly prohibited
(haraam). And according to Quranic exegetes 8 (commentators), denigrating and ruining the sacredness
of one's face comes under this sin of "changing the nature of Allah's creation" as Allah has created
beards to adorn the faces of sons of Adam, not to be shaved away. The utter eternal loss and failure of
such people is also described in the same verse:
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Verily, I (Satan) will mislead them … and indeed I will order them to change the
nature created by Allâh." And whoever takes Shaitân (Satan) as a Walî (protector
or helper) instead of Allâh, has surely suffered a manifest loss. (4:119) 9

Once the holy Prophet ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬said to Hazrat Ruaifi' bin Thaabit to inform the people of
coming generations that he (‫ )ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬disowns any person who ties up his beards into knots in
violation of the Islamic command to leave the beard in its natural condition to grow fully and freely (Abu
Dawood) 10. If only displacing the beard from its natural state is so much sinful as to deprive the crimecommitter from Prophet's ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬recommendation for Allah’s mercy on the Day of Judgement,
we can well imagine the disastrous fate of those who defiantly shave their beards.
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It is a matter where the views of all Islamic scholars belonging to entirely different schools of
thoughts converge and there is complete unanimity among them that shaving the beard is haraam.
Maulana Mufti Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri, the revered Islamic scholar (Shaikhul Hadith of Darul Uloom,
Deoband) in his book Beards and the practices of the Prophets has compiled several such quotes. Here
are a few of them:
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•
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Allama Mahmood Khattab writes: Shaving beards is strictly prohibited (haraam) in the
opinion of all mujtahid (authoritative) scholars like Imam Abu Haneefa, Malik, Shafi, Ahmad
bin Hanbal and others. (Al Manhal v1 p186)
The reputed Hanafi book of Fiqh (jurisprudence) Durrul Mukhtaar says: It is strictly
prohibited for men to shave their beards.
Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri Hanafi says in Faizul Baari (4:380): Shaving the beard to less
than a handful is strictly prohibited (haraam) by the consensus of all Imams.
Imam Azra'ee of the Shafi'ee school of fiqh says: The fact is that shaving the entire beard
without any admissible excuse is strictly prohibited (haraam). 11
Shaikh Ahmad Faasi Maliki writes: Shaving of the entire beard and shaving off or picking
away white hairs of the beard are prohibited. 12
Abun Najjaaf Hanbali writes: Allowing the beard to grow is compulsory and shaving it is
prohibited (haraam). 13
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How was the Prophet's beard?
Various hadiths describing the Prophet's ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬beard tell us that his beard was dense and bulky
(Muslim)14. Hazrat Anas reports that when the holy Prophet ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬performed wudhu, he took
water in his hand and tuck in his fingers inside the beard below the lower jaw (Abu Dawood) 15. The holy
Prophet was also in the habit of frequently applying oil to his head and combing his beard (As
Shamaailul Muhammadia)16. Abu Dawood reports that Hazrat Khabbaab bin Al Aratt was asked if the
holy Prophet read Quran in Zuhr and Asr (farz salaats). Hz Khabbaab replied in the affirmative. He was
again asked how the Sahaaba who were standing behind the holy Prophet could know that. Hazrat
Khabbaab replied, "By the movement of the beard" 17. Obviously, a trimmed beard or one that is less
than a handful cannot have the attribute described above. Thus the above mentioned hadiths
conclusively prove without leaving any shade of doubt that Prophet's ‫ ﺻﻠﻰ ﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ‬beard was dense
and large, a handful or more, for one cannot and need not insert his fingers inside a trimmed beard, nor
can one comb them, nor can their movement be seen from behind the person's back.
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Therefore, Mufti Saeed Sb Palanpuri (Shaikhul Hadith, Darul Uloom, Deoband) writes that
having beard is compulsory, … and shaving it without an excuse permissible in Islam is haraam, … and
making the beard shorter than a handful is forbidden (makrooh e tahreemi)18. A person who has
trimmed beard is a faasiq (open violator) of Islamic law. So if such a person is the imam of a mosque, it is
compulsory for him to do tauba (repentance) and stop trimming beards. However if the imam persists in
this sin, he should be removed from his post. Saying salaat behind him will be makrooh (forbidden).
Imam Ibn Maaja reports that the Prophet said, "No faajir (open violator of Islamic law) should be the
imam of a believer." 19 Imam Baihaqi relates that Hazrat Ibn Umar quotes the holy Prophet as saying,
"Make the best among you your imams, for they are the leaders of your delegation to your Lord." 20
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Thus Hadith and Islamic jurisprudence make it very clear that beards have great importance in
Islam. They are not something which can be compromised with as and when the situation so demands.
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Medical Benefits
Moustache
Long moustaches are unhygienic and unhealthy as they come in the way of eating and drinking
contaminating the food and the drink. So principles of healthcare demand that they be trimmed short so
that they do not overflow the lips.

Harms of Beard-shaving
Trimming the beard needlessly is a waste of precious time while shaving it is harmful for health.
When any organ is subjected to constant irritation, the vital force of that organ gets weakened.
Therefore, the perpetual irritation to the facial cells during shaving may impair them, consequently
darkening them. This unnatural periodic irritation and strain on the cells may turn them into malignant
cells eventually resulting in cancer, the disease without an answer. Similarly, the bacteria and aerobic
germs may attack the delicate facial tissues producing irritation, soreness, itch and eczema.
Renowned English doctor Gandur writes that beard has immense influence on a person's
personality and general behaviour. It normally turns the man into an honourable pious person.
(Hamdard Health magazine)
According to another doctor, the eighth progeny of a beard-shaver is highly likely to be a
eunuch. (Kitab â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Falsafa Qutbi).

The History of Beard-Shaving
Before the invention of razor and scissor
In the past before the invention of scissors and razors, every male face used to be populated
with beards. Even after that beard continued to hold an exalted status among the noble men of all ages
as it was rightly considered a symbol of masculinity. It was also considered to be a mark of righteousness
and truthfulness. All the Greek and Roman philosophers sported beards.

Sicily Barbers begin the practice of beard-shaving
In 300 B.C., with the migration of the barbers of Sicily to Greece and Rome, the practice of
beard-shaving started. But it was confined to the uncivilized tribes at that time. Then came Alexander of
Macedon (356-323 B.C.). He shaved the beards of all his soldiers fearing that the enemy might
overpower them catching the hold of their beards. After Alexander's death, beard regained its position
of prominence in Europe and other nations.
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Muslim Beard
The beards of Muslims used to be long. They used to oil and comb them. The aged Muslims
appeared red because of hair-dying. In the Abbasi period, a few Muslims also started to trim beards in
imitation of the Persians. The Mughal king Jalaluddin Akbar was influenced by the local Indians in
trimming beards. But the Indian Muslims disapproved of Akbar's act. After Akbar, Jahangir followed the
footsteps of his dead father in shaving his beards. Every disliked it but none could dare to ask the king
why he did this. However, a respected cleric of the court Shaikhul Islam did question him. Jahangir gave
a childish reply that I shave my beard so that my minister may not pull me whichever way he likes,
taking hold of my beard.

Two-cent Beard Tax
In the 13th century, beards were quite common in England. In the 15th century, the legislators of
King Henry VIII made a law forbidding common men from sporting beards. If a commoner anyway
wanted to keep his beard, he had to pay a fee of two cent every week as per the law. In spite of this,
people continued to love their beards and preferred to pay the foolish tax imposed on them by eccentric
legislators every week. In 1555, Queen Mary sent four bearded envoys to the Russian king. The Russian
king on seeing the beards broke into a sudden laughter, embarrassing the envoys no end. This incident
had a big influence on the English. Then during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the beard-tax was raised
to three shillings and four pence which was to be imposed on any person who had not shaved his beard
for more than 15 days. Consequently, beards became less and less common. A little later, a similar
beard-tax was imposed in Russia. The noble men of Russia used to maintain their beards in spite of the
stupid tax.

Philip V orders Beard-shaving in 1700
In 1700, Philip V was made the king. As a manifestation of Allah's power, his body had no hair on
it. So he was naturally intolerant towards beards. He ordered all his ministers, bureaucrats and noble
men to shave their beards. Thus beard-shaving gained currency in that period.

A blemish below Francis I's cheek made him keep beards
In 1551, when Francis I became the king of France, he had an ugly blemish below his cheek. So
he sported beards to hide that ugliness. His courtiers imitated him. The last emperor of France,
Napoleon sported a new kind of beard: both the cheeks were shaved and a little beard remained on the
chin. This kind of French-cut beard soon gained popularity even outside France.

A new kind of beard in Germany and Austria
In a tit-for tat, the kings of Germany and France sported a beard that was just opposite to the
French-cut: hair on both the cheeks and the chin shaved. This sort of beard in particular appealed to the
Russian military officers. They not only adopted it but also promoted it. Through them, the fashion came
to India and many rajas and maharajas adopted it.

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The Longest Beard
A German painter, Chohaan Tayo is reported to have had the longest beard. It is said that his
beard was long that it would touch the ground when he stood upright. So sometimes, Chohaan would
tie his beard around his waist.